My deep gratitude to Heather, Traveler, Earthquake, Stan and all those contributing to this thread and to Rick Alan Ross for creating this important platform. No doubt these shares have provided informed consent regarding working with JS and a place for Heather to share her healing journey.

I took a break from the thread for a good while but was brought back in when learning of Rod Stryker’s recent challenges with the teacher student relationship. He’s a long-term tier A yoga teacher in the Himalayan Institute lineage who at 63 had a sexual relationship with a 29 year-old student.

One of his other former students, Karina Ayn Mirsky, has written several articles about Stryker’s transgression and abuse of power. She was Stryker’s first lead teacher in Para Yoga and taught with him for years before she defected.

I wanted to share Mirsky’s bullet points on why students, who have been impacted by abuse of power in teacher-student relationships, stay silent. From the article: The 2021 Rod Stryker Scandal: A Call for Restorative Justice.

Mirsky's Article

There are several reasons why victims of a spiritual leader’s abuse of power might cause them to leave quietly. Often the reasons are layered…

Here are some to consider:
* Fear of defamation — The member has heard the leader assassinate the character of other students who have left.
* Self-doubt — The leader has made the student believe that the real problem lies with them. So they don’t talk about why they left.
* Professional repercussions — The person has invested years promoting the brand to their own students and does not want to negatively impact their own reputation, community or livelihood.
* #JustMe — The member believes their reason for leaving is unique to them. It’s their own “personal” issue or complicated relationship with the leader. No one else’s.
* Fear of ostracization — The student sees others in the community are still being manipulated and fears damaging relationships with their friends, colleagues and peers.
* Shame — The member finally recognizes that they’ve been participating with something really dysfunctional and feels too ashamed to speak.
* Fear of loss — The student can’t separate the teacher from the teachings, and is afraid of losing connection to the practice, lineage, or spiritual energy.
* Codependency — The member still feels deeply for the leader and believes that the leader still loves them — even if they know they can’t stay in the unhealthy dynamic.
* Fatigue/Burnout — After years of navigating exhausting dynamics, one may just want to cleanse themselves of anything to do with the leader or the organization. They don’t want to invest any more energy, not even to shout for justice. They just want to move on.

Once again, thank you all for stepping in and sharing your feelings and thoughts. In reading this thread, I have learned a lot about my own relationships with teachers over the last thirty years and how I have given my power away.

With love, BeTrue

Springtime, 2022
Why Students Stay Silent
About the Abuse and Crimes
of JAMES SWARTZ


BeTrue's post above gives an excellent list of reasons people stay silent even after abuse by a teacher. The fact the Heather was able to fight through all of those is just another feather in her cap!

In large accordance with the list by Mirsky posted by BeTrue, many messages I've received from those who left James Swartz focus on two main themes. These are:

1. Embarrassment and Shame -- once many persons see James Swartz for the liar, fraud, and criminal he is they are embarrassed to admit they've ever "followed," "listened to," and/ or fell for the hoodwinking of this despicable pedophilic self-aggrandizing con man.

2. Fear (of various types) -- with Swartz, mostly Fear of defamation, but all of the types on the list appear. Many persons have shared horrific tales only after emphasizing something like, "I'll tell you, but don't use my name! I don't want him coming after me!"

After all, when dealing with a rapacious rabid wolf that likes to bite, isn't staying away from it often a wise strategy?

The number of his ex-students who hear about Heather, shake their heads, and conclude something like, "Yeah, dammit! I'm not surprised..." or, at the least, "That all could be true! Especially when he was younger..." is legion. As in, virtually 100%.

Some of Swartz's most astute and hardcore critics now were just as strongly his supporters until they began to see him more clearly, which in some cases did occur due to Heather's going public.

Some of these critics, like Earthquake, say, "Damn the ostracization, screw Swartz!" and tell the full truth about him. They don't let the prospect of a public on-line war with James Swartz bother them-- and what is revealed in these "wars" about Swartz gives anyone who knows of true spiritual teachers a big "Ah-hah!" experience if they pay attention.

James Swartz has relied on Fear, Guilt, Shame, and Embarrassment in his ex-students for decades in his quest to live prosperously, to feel acclaim, and to get laid.

Thankfully, now, in his last years, the truth has emerged about him, seen in over 90,000 view on this site alone. And he has a wife that would try the patience of Job, which many see as a hilarious type of Karmic justice...

May we all leave Fear and Embarrassment behind and spit out James Swartz into the gutter alongside the road where, as any sort of spiritual teacher, he deserves to be.

Regarding
Unverifed Reports
about the
Deteriorated Mental and Physical Condition
of
JAMES SWARTZ -
Are any of them True?

Many messages come to me regarding James Swartz. They come from a wide variety of sources and venues.

Among the stranger messages recently are ones that I have not yet been able to verify. Normally, I only pass along events and matters that I personally believe are factual. The veracity of the person sharing the information, and how many mouths the "story" has passed through, are very important.

Believe it or not, there are even WORSE stories about James Swartz "out there" than have been shared by me on this forum, in "Guru? The Story of Heather", or in other sources I am aware of.
I have never shared these horror stories because I don't have a primary source. Person A told B who told C who then tells me does not work. I want to hear from Person A.

Otherwise, simply to "tell stories about Swartz" just because they "sound true" and "everybody knows he's a lying rapist, so why not?" is to have the same standards he does.

No, thanks, to that.

However, some stories have come to me repeatedly. They are each from third-hand sources, but, to repeat, they keep coming.

Therefore, with the strong proviso here that these assertions and concerns stay in the "maybe" or "hypothetical" stages, and are not proven facts, and--

Keeping in mind that James Swartz is now in his eighties, has a wife who provides much stress and drama, and has been running from a criminal past for decades, does anyone have solid information about --

1. James Swartz having undergone a series of minor strokes (which allegedly have made his already shady intellect more clouded, and his already angry demeanor more uneven)?

2. James Swartz now being physically unable to perform normal functions, even to the extent he now speaks (even) less coherently, cannot chew food properly (with much leaking out from his mouth onto his front during meals), and constantly uses adult diapers because he cannot make it to the toilet in time?

3. James Swartz at times having mumbled about "I want to make it right before I die! I need to confess -- to apologize to Heather and the others, and to attone for what I've done wrong for so long!"? (This last said to be always blocked by his wife, who fears what income they still have would dry up if James actually turned honest in his last days).

Personally, to repeat, I have no idea if any of these three assertions are true. Sadly, I would only believe number three would occur as the result of the small series of strokes mentioned in number one.

If anyone has heard anything (and not fourth hand, or goodness forbid, solely from someone who read this post!) that would confirm (or not) any of these, please do either post or message accordingly.